A Quantitative Assessment Method for Ascaris Eggs on Hands

This paper bu Jeandron et al. (2014) in PLOS ONE summarises the findings of a study that developed a method to assess the number of Ascaris eggs on hands and determine the egg recovery rate of the method, and thus add to the limited body of research on the role of contaminated hands in STH transmission. The paper concludes that the method presented, if further validated, can be used to assess the effectiveness of complementing sanitation interventions with hand hygiene promotion to better prevent ascariasis infection. It will allow users to quantify the range of hand contamination with Ascaris eggs found in high, medium and low transmission settings and measure the risk factors for high hand contamination with helminth eggs.